July 17, 1885.] 



SCIENCE, 



59 



esting chapter to add to tlie physical geography of 

 our country. 



— The Portuguese explorer, Serpa Pinto, has found 

 considerable coal-beds south of the Eovunia. The 

 Kovuma flows into the Indian Ocean, south of the 

 German possessions on the east coast of Africa, on 

 the old caravan track from Cape Delgado to Lake 

 Nyassa. These coal-beds were claimed by the sultan 

 of Zanzibar; but, as they lie south of the Rovuma, 

 the Portuguese have taken possession of them. 



— Professor Forel of Morges continues his reports 

 to the Swiss-Alpine club, on the periodic variations 

 of the glaciers of the Alps, and in his fifth statement, 

 for 1884, confirms the conclusion announced a year 

 ago, that the decrease of thirty-four di>tinct glaciers 

 has come to an end, and is now followed by a mod- 

 erate advance. In the valley of Chamounix, the 

 glacier of Argentiere crept forward thirty-three feet 

 last year: it had a maximum in 1819, and again in 

 1854, followed by a minimum in 1883. The Glacier 

 des bois, at the foot of the Mer de glace, shows no 

 change; but that of the Bossons is advancing rap- 

 idly, having extended its front about one hundred 

 and fifty feet in the past year; and so with a number 

 of others. Part of the Hotel des Neuchatelois, from 

 which Agassiz made his early observations on the 

 Unteraar glacier, has been found twenty-four hun- 

 dred metres down stream from its position in 1842, 

 giving an average annual velocity of fifty-five me- 

 tres; but it is curious to note, that as its velocity 

 from 1842 to 1846, when determined by Agassiz, was 

 seventy-three metres a year, its recent velocity must 

 have been about forty metres, to bring the forty years' 

 average down so low as fifty-five. Another peculiar 

 fact found by Forel is that the recent change from 

 retreat to advance is much more common in the west- 

 em than in the eastern Alps. The observations of 

 the next few years promise to be of special interest in 

 this connection. 



— Capt. Downie of the British steamer St. An- 

 drew's Bay, reports that on June 25, in mid-ocean, a 

 meteor resembling a ball of fire two feet and a half 

 in diameter descended from overhead a short dis- 

 tance from his vessel. This occurred about noon. 

 The weather was misty and rainy, but there had 

 been no lightning or thunder. The flash made by 

 the passing meteor was so brilliant that it blinded 

 those who witnessed it. The meteor exploded with 

 a terrific report, resembling cannonading, followed 

 by a noise like the rattle of musketry. Immediately 

 after the passage of the meteor the weather cleared 

 up. The vessel was loaded with iron ore, but there 

 was no play of electricity upon any part of her. 



— The third report of the Swiss seismological com- 

 mission, by Forel, covers the years 1882 and 1883. It 

 gives a list of the earthquakes observed during the 

 two years in Switzerland, with the accessory shocks. 

 The intensity of each earthquake is marked accord- 

 ing to the Kossi-Forel scale, and its ' value ' computed 

 by the formula adopted by Forel in previous reports, 

 which takes into account the intensity number, the 

 extent of the seismic area, and the number of acces- 



sory shocks. These numbers are tabulated, and com- 

 pared with the mean of the two years 1880 and 1881, 

 and with the separate numbers for those years. The 

 means deduced from the several tables are as fol- 

 lows : — 





1880. 



1881. 



Mean of 



1880-81. 



1882. 



1883. 



Number of earth- 













quakes . . . 



_ 



_ 



29.0 



29.0 



15.0 



Number of shocks, 



- 



- 



116.0 



49.0 



19.0 



Mean intensity . 



3.9 



4.2 



4.0 



3.7 



3.6 



Mean 'value' . . 



10.1 



15.1 



_ 



7.4 



5.7 



Annual sum of 













' values ' . . . 



211.0 



574.0 



273.0 * 



220.0 



87.0 



* Mean of the four years. 



From these figures the author infers that there was 

 a maximum of seismic activity in Switzerland in 

 1881, which a comparison of the monthly values 

 shows to have been in November of that year ; and 

 that in 1882 and 1883 the activity was notably dimin- 

 ished, especially so in the latter year, in which only 

 one earthquake (Jan. 8) exceeded a value of 10, 

 and none exceeded 15. In the figures tabulated, no 

 account was taken of twenty-one slight shocks, twelve 

 in 1882, and nine in 1883, which were only reported 

 by a single observer. 



— Dr. M. E. Wadsworth has accepted a position as 

 professor of mineralogy and geology at Colby uni- 

 versity, Waterville, Me. We understand, that, as at 

 Cambridge, he will continue to give instruction to 

 advanced students in lithology ; and there will thus be 

 one more opportunity for those who intend pursuing 

 this growing science to familiarize themselves with 

 the latest methods of investigation. 



— The Berlin congress, says the Athenaeum, ap- 

 pears to have stirred the Portuguese Commissao de 

 cartographia into activity. Among a batch of maps 

 recently forwarded to us from Lisbon, we find a 

 capital general map of the province of Angola, com- 

 piled by A. A. d'Oliveira, on a scale of 1:3,000,000, 

 which distinguishes salubrious from insalubrious dis- 

 tricts, and shows, among other novel features, the 

 recent routes of Capello and Iveus to the east of 

 Mossamedes; a map of the country between Loanda 

 and Ambaca, on a scale of 1 : 400,000, based upon rail- 

 way surveys made by Major A. S. de Souza Prado, 

 Major Goyao, and others, and of much original value; 

 and, lastly, a map of the lower Kongo up to Noki, 

 from recent surveys by L. de Moraes e Souza, C. de 

 Magalhaes, and E. de Vasconcellos. These maps are 

 reproduced from autographs, and their external as- 

 pect is consequently not very inviting; but they con- 

 tain matter which the cartographer cannot afford to 

 neglect. We are glad to hear that maps of the island 

 of St. Thomas, of Angola (on a scale of 1:1,500,000), 

 and of Mozambique, are preparing by the Commis- 

 sao de cartographia, under the direction of Senhor 

 Leite. 



— A remarkable instance of the tenacity of old 

 beliefs among an ignorant class lately occurred not 



